INC.com says - Give Your Employees Unlimited Vacation Days

Source: http://www.linkedin.com/news?actionBar=&articleID=1026708525&ids=dPoPdzcSejoVdPwUdP4NcjoRdiMUe30Tcz8ScjcTejcVcjgNdzkRb3sMcz8Tdz4QdzgRczoNd34SdjkIdj8Re30Tdz8MciMPcPsMe3sMcz0N&aag=true&freq=weekly&trk=eml-tod2-b-ttl-1&ut=3u-71-TEnfhB41


The 9 a.m.-to-5 p.m. workplace is almost dead. Throw your preconceived notions about vacation out the window and give your employees the no-strings-attached, unlimited vacation days they deserve or you'll soon be a dinosaur.


With an unparalleled culture in which our people actually enjoy coming to work (see Your Employees Need a Treehouse and Let Your Employees Choose Their Titles) as the foundation, every last Red Frog employee is unflinchingly focused and devoted to our mission. Producing vast amounts of quality work is the norm, so we reward them with unlimited vacation and they, in return, reward Red Frog with outstanding work that blows me away every single day.

Taking vacation at Red Frog is encouraged (and even celebrated). And it's not abused. Ever. By anyone. Simply make sure your work is getting done and make sure you're covered while you're away and that's it—no questions asked.

The pessimists and naysayers have said this policy would either be abused or that it's not entirely real—that our employees feel pressured to never take off. I assure you they're underestimating a positive work culture and are simply wrong. Also, I feel sorry for their workplace.
Through building a company on accountability, mutual respect, and teamwork, we've seen our unlimited vacation day policy have tremendous results for our employees' personal development and for productivity. There. I said it. I think Red Frog is more productive by giving unlimited vacation days. Here’s why:

1. It treats employees like the adults they are. If they’re incapable of handling the responsibility that comes along with having unlimited vacation days, they're probably incapable of handling other responsibilities too, so don't hire them.
2. It reduces costs by not having to track vacation time. Tracking and accounting for vacation days can be cumbersome work. This policy eliminates those headaches.
3. It shows appreciation. Your employees will need unexpected time off and some need more vacation than others. By giving them what they need when they need it, you show your employees how much you appreciate them and they reciprocate by producing more great work.
4. It's a great recruitment tool. We hire a mere one out of every 750 applicants at Red Frog. When you combine fantastic benefits with a positive culture, it's noticed.

I lead by example. I worked more 100 hours last week, but this week, as I write this column, I'm watching surfers and sipping a delicious Hawaiian brew.

By Joe Reynolds

8 Secrets to Being a Low-Maintenance Woman

8. Stop asking "What are you thinking about?" all the time - chances are, nothing. Let him keep his thoughts to himself occasionally.

7. Stop making your relationship the main topic of all your conversations. With your girlfriends, your boyfriend, your husband or your co-workers - talk about something else, it's not always about your relationship.

6. Be OK with solitude. Even the tightest couples need and thrive on time apart.  A low-maintenance gal is OK with the occasional guys night out because she can't wait to spend a quiet evening alone.

5. Take care of your own self-esteem. Don't leave it up to the man to tell you how great you are to build your self esteem - do it yourself.

4. Take it easy on the special orders. Chances are the chef might actually know more about food than you do. Designing your own entree every time you are at a restaurant asking for water, lemon, a napkin, a straw isn't impressive it's annoying.

3. Learn to laugh at yourself. Being  low-maintenance often means being bale to bounce back quickly from life's little trouble. A girl that can laugh at her own mistakes comes across as confident, funny and less likely to fall apart when someone else makes a mistake.

2. Buy some freakin' comfortable shoes. We don't care if they are ugly - we are sick to death of hearing about how much your feet hurt. To a lot of men a respectable pairs of shoes or whatever is just as appealing as a pair of stilettos.

1. Stop worrying about your hair. The simpler the style, the faster you will be able to get out of the house and on to something more fun.

After no rapture, billboard proclaims: "That was Awkward"

Originally published at http://mynorthwest.com/?nid=646&sid=485527

A few billboards in the area announced the end of the world was coming May 21st. Didn't happen. "That was awkward," is the billboard response.

The Family Radio Group, led by Howard Camping, launched an expensive advertising campaign to promote judgment day. Saturday was supposed to be the beginning of the end - the first day in a five month event that would end with the universe destroyed on October 21, 2011. Other church groups shared the belief and purchased their own billboards and advertising vehicles to spread the message. Here's a link to some of the hundreds of billboards across the country that went up. Below you'll see a billboard from Seattle's Interbay neighborhood, sponsored by Camping's group.

Photo by Stephanie Klein, MyNorthwest.com

Now what? This billboard below has been making the rounds on social media sites:

What are your post-rapture thoughts? If you believed it would happen, how will you defend yourself against the people who will make jokes at your expense? A sociologist, who's studied these kinds of doomsday predictions, says for some it'll reinforce their beliefs.

"A third of believers become disillusioned after a failed prediction, while another third find reason to believe more strongly. The remaining group members fall somewhere in between," says Stephen Kent with the University of Alberta, in an interview with Live Science. (Gee, what a brilliant scientific mind - "Well, some folks will still believe, other won't, and the rest will fall somewhere else along the continuum.")

Situation Room supposedly watching the Osama bin Laden fiasco unfold